Nicholas Wild interview

French graphic novelist Nicholas Wild’s Kabul Disco is a look at the country’s tenuous attempts to restore peace and order

By
Laura Chubb
23 March 2010

French graphic novelist Nicholas Wild’s Kabul Disco is a look at the country’s tenuous attempts to restore peace and order. Wild arrived in Kabul in February 2005 to write and illustrate a comic book that explained the Afghan constitution to children. Kabul Disco records his adventures in his temporary home.

How effective are graphic novels in telling stories and reporting on the world? The graphic novel is a tool to tell a story. Books and movies are two other tools. The story is more interesting than the tool you use to tell it. Some reviews compare your work to Guy Delisle and Joe Sacco. I like both artists a lot and I’m flattered to be compared to them. But I don’t really count them as influences. We share the fact we write about our experience in foreign countries, but the writing is different.

How so?I like to have direct dialogue and little text that isn’t dialogue. It’s more of a cinematographic approach that enhances the rhythm of the narration.Interview Nandini Ramnath. Kabul Disco is published by HarperCollins